IFTB,
Simtel has been around in various incarnations for a
long time supplying freeware and shreware.
However, as with
any download software, you should always scan it for viruses with an up-to-date checker. Not that virus-scanning will detect the presence of trojan software [but see below].
To answer your questions:
This site has many downloadable freeware, but what does it do to your PC?
What, the site or the software ? The "site" does nothing, as far as anybody has seen. As for downloaded software, all bets are off.
Why is it free?
Sponsored links and advertising...
How can you prevent chaos on your PC, despite the trustworthy descriptions which go with it?
You can't guarantee it. You might choose to believe reviewer ratings, but if you're paranoid, you might not trus them, either.
Certainly when virus scanned nothing came up on the few (free)programmes I downloaded.
But I am reluctant to launch them on my unsuspecting, new, low budget, PC.
That's always the safest choice.
What is the safest way to approach this type of download sites?
Establish the reputation of the site amongst people you trust, like you're doing here. But at the end of the day, there are no guarantees that the software won't do harm (this is
equally true of software that you have to pay money to license, of course, but people tend to forget that. Many people who quite cheerfully tell Microsoft all sorts of things about themselves and their PCs would be outraged if some "free" software tried to collect that same information -- regarding it as "spyware" -- yet hand it over to MS, because it's "commercial" software .)
If you want software that you can verify only does what you're expecting it to, I refer you to the mantra of
Open Source advocates:
"Use the source, Luke".
By using open source operating systems and software, you have the opportunity to verify that the software "does what it says on the tin." With closed proprietry commercial software, you don't
And open source is usually free
